Sunday, 29 March 2015

12th-17th March 2015, myself, Andre, Steve, Sean and Aidy went north
to look for Orcas off the west coast of Iceland. As always with trips like
this the weather plays a big part in how much birding you can do and
we lost some time with 160mph winds keeping us in for most of one day!
That said, we did "enjoy" some reasonable weather and made the most
of our time there.

Our time began at Keflavik, where we met up with local birder
Guomundur Hjortur, who immediately took us to look for the
White-winged Scoter that had been present for some time off
the coastline nearby. Before sighting the Scoter we were amazed to
see huge numbers of Fulmar, including several Blue birds. White-
winged Gulls numbered in their thousands too.

Blue Fulmar

After failing to see the Scoter we came across this superb immature Gyrfalcon

by the roadside. It was very confiding and these shots below were taken with

just a 300mm lens!

Gyrfalcon

Still dizzy from the Gyr' we caught up with the yank duck and it was close

inshore when we arrived.

White-winged Scoter

From a Britsh birders' point of view, Iceland is a superb place for White-winged

Gulls, there are thousands to be seen in winter, with Iceland Gulls out-numbering

the Glaucous as they pass through. During our visit we saw several thousand

birds with small numbers of Kumlien's type birds in most groups we encountered.

Iceland Gull

Day two and another close encounter with a Gyrfalcon-possibly the same as yesterday's

bird was very welcome before locating a splendid drake King Eider.

phone-scoped image

The Gyrfalcon taking flight

Unfortunately, the King Eider was too far out in the choppy water for an image.

A little dissapointing, as this was the first one i'd seen in over twenty years!

Later, we drove east of the capital to twitch the Hooded Merganser that was present

on a small lake. Despite awful wind and sleet, we finally located it with a flock

of Tufted Duck.

Hooded Merganser

American and Eurasian Wigeons

A drake American Wigeon and White-tailed Eagle were good bonus birds too!

No Glaucous-winged Gull in Reykjavik harbour later that day for us, so we

set off for Snaefellness in ever-worsening weather.

The drive was hair-raising with strong winds, compacted ice and rain water,

all making for an interesting ride. Eventually we made it do Sudar Bar guest-

house, having first stopped off to wait for the storm to clear.

Next morning the weather was even worse! And we were being blown off our

feet going for breakfast by almost hurricane winds! Finally, by early afternoon,

we headed out and that afternoon and the following day we had some memorable

sightings. Highlights were: another two American Wigeon, around ten Brunnich's